Winter has finally arrived. With the regional snow level near 1500ft I chose The West Fork Miller River Jeep Road. I have been up the road numerous times but hadn't gone too far past Coney Creek. I have always found the road somewhat unpleasant due to the many areas where water flow has stripped away all the soil. This has left the exposed rocks which are mostly quite smooth and slippery. With the snow starting almost from the start I made my way up the road. I switched to snowshoes after about 1.5 miles, which wasn't really needed but I thought I might as well give them some use. The weather was a mixed bag sun, snow and rain. It was quite cool for the end of March. I turned around just past Cleopatra Creek the snow was close to 2 feet at the modest elevation of 2400ft. I enjoyed watching the dogs run through the untracked snow, for some reason they always seem to enjoy it more. I had hoped to use this trip to scout for future trips, too bad for me the low cloud level prevented this.

A friend had told me about this old road bed his Father and a buddy had gone up in 1991. They were told about an old yellow truck in the tree's close to the end of the road. It was a vally that had mine shaft's here and there. So I wanted to see.

We hit the trail head @ 06:40 and there was a vehicle already there but looked to be an over nighter. 10 minutes up the wash we found what looked like an old mine shaft that was shored up and has sense fallen in. This old road bed fallows the miller and climbs slowly.

The road was used buy 4X4's till they closed it and it looks like a rough go as the the road turn's into a river bed it self at times. A few miles up we see someone's got camp set up but there still sleeping. Just past this point we find some old automobile parts, Tail gate, fender, hood parts, was cool.

Now to this point the bugs were nothing so we figured a break on the river was a good idea and we could take in some of the scenery. We came to a huge rock that had a double water fall on the out side of it so this was break time. The hill sides here go straight up. We could see snow at the top end of the vally. How them old buggers could go in the hills with no roads and find a place to dig a hole in the side of the MT. was incredible.

Up the trail a bit we find a spot that had a few old trucks in a pile on a low spot under some tree's. We are stoked and I whip off my pack to get out the video camera. My buddy Less get's closer to see the tresure we had found. He starts poking around and I here BEE'S. He come's a flying out of there and we run for safety. Now I HATE BEE'S especially Yellow Jackets.

After a short video shoot we took off. We could not find the yellow Mac truck that they had seen in 1991 as the hills are now cover with Vine Maple and is allready turning colors. Almost to the end of the road we find a tallying pile. So we chop a path up the steap hill. At the bottom of the pile we find a bunch of pipe, a motor and what looked like another road bed.

From here we go up to the mine shaft and there is another motor. Now it's about 11:30 and gettin hot. We have a drink, some looking at the hills, get out the video camera and look in mine. Didn't go much beyond the entrance. It was nice and cool as the brush has grown over the entrance.

We start down but I go the wrong way and bingo another mine, but this one is a big dude. There was some stuff there to that was used for the mine. Took some pictures and more video and off we go. We come the end of the road shortly after this point and see that there was a huge tree across the river that had foot holes cut in for steps. It has broke in half and fallen into the river.

Less get's his map out and we see it's a trail head to a lake. We say nope not today. Now the bugs are getting bad. Black fly's. We have some chow and water and head down. We see lot's of tree's stipped of the bark buy Yogi the bear. Some old and some new, a day old maybe. I've seen this in Canada to. They mark there land. On the way down the bugs are realy bad but as long as you keep moving they can't bite. We get back to the truck @ 3:00 sharp. 8 hr.20 minutes of some fun in the woods. If you go up there and find the truck pile remember the bee's and make noise so Yogi can go hide..

Now is a great time to hike the West Fork Miller river trail, the flowers are coming out and the water is roaring. There is less water on the first 1/2 mile of the road, due to some thoughtful drainage work that someone has done. On parts of the road, vine maples make a green tunnel to walk through.

The two creeks that drain Coney Basin now require fording - unlike 2 weeks ago when they were a rock hop. I put on some thong sandals and waded the first creek (halfway to knees) and wore them for 100 yards or so to the next creek, where the ford was a little more challenging (knee deep and fast).

I went as far as Cleopatra Creek, which looked to be more or less a rock hop. I noodled around Cleopatra Camp, and explored up the hill from it where I saw a mountain hemlock freshly stripped of bark from the ground to about 6 feet up. The claw marks on the stripped trunk looked very fresh. Big bear.

On the drive out, a bobcat dashed off the Miller River road in front of my truck.